Richard Kluckow, DSW ’18, made a trip to Washington, D.C. with his family during the final semester of his doctoral studies at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. It was the first time he visited the capitol since his eighth-grade class took a field trip, and the energy of the city excited him. He sensed that important things were happening and there were opportunities to make an impact on the world. In 2020, Kluckow landed a position with the U.S. Department of Justice, as a supervisory statistician in the Corrections Statistics Unit, Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).

Kluckow supports the work of eight statisticians who collect and analyze data on the correctional landscape in the United States, including the full range of local jails, state and federal prisons and individuals on probation and parole. The team collects annual statistics on how many people are involved in these systems, and characteristics specific to these individuals. Additionally, they collect and analyze data directly from the incarcerated population every couple of years in order to provide an in-depth picture of who is incarcerated, what led them to be incarcerated, and what services and programs they have access to or are using while incarcerated. Following their release from incarceration, and with the individual’s consent, the statistics team continues to track their desistance, employment and community reentry. 

“The Bureau is a Federal Statistical Agency, not an advocacy organization, but the data we collect is used to help frame the agendas of policymakers and improvements they want to make to the system,” Kluckow said. “I do get a sense that what we do can be used to improve the state of the criminal justice landscape.”

Originally from Zimbabwe, Kluckow’s family lived in the United States when he was a young boy. Despite his youth, he became aware of large discrepancies in the way people lived between the two different countries. Years later, his interest in understanding how society works and inequality arises at the national and international level led him to a master’s degree in sociology. After graduate school, he went to work for a nonprofit organization that supported international disaster recovery, but he found it difficult to be away from his young family for long stretches out in the field.

“I thought I was too disconnected from what was going on at home,” Kluckow said. “I thought there must be an opportunity stateside to make an impact using the skills I’d developed as a social researcher.”

Kluckow changed course in 2016, and began working for the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) after briefly supporting the Division of Youth Services. His position supported research as part of a statewide effort to reduce the overall number of incarcerated young adults and change the correctional paradigm. Kluckow describes Colorado as a rather progressive state in terms of its correctional system. For several years it has focused on rehabilitation and community reintegration for formerly incarcerated individuals, in addition to being at the forefront of eliminating its use of solitary confinement as a measure of control. 

“All those things were tied together in a place where I could do good work and support a positive change in society,” Kluckow said.

Around the same time, he began working for the Colorado DOC, Kluckow learned about a new Doctor of Social Work (DSW) program at USC. He investigated, and liked the applied focus of the program. Due to the DSW being online, he could also pursue his advanced degree without taking a leave of absence from work, and apply the skills he was learning in real time.

“What I learned in the DSW is what sparked my interest in working at the federal level,” Kluckow said. 

Real world impact of the DSW 

Kluckow began to understand systems and see opportunities to impact more broadly. Courses within the DSW program on leadership and finance provided particular impact, and instilled him with a level of confidence to bring what he was learning into his role at the Colorado DOC.

“It was interesting coming into social work after having the analytical, statistical, quantitative side with my sociology background,” Kluckow said. “It was refreshing to be in a cohort of accomplished changemakers, really bold people positively impacting their communities across the country.”

For his capstone project, the main focus of the DSW program, he studied the use of digital technology to promote smart decarceration, making the case that it would improve the correctional experience. Interestingly, many of his citations came from BJS statisticians. 

“Ultimately, I’ve ended up working for the agency that loomed so large in my capstone project,” he said.

A class that was most poignant for Kluckow in the DSW program was on public discourse, helping him understand how to use his position and voice to advocate for the kind of change he wants to see in the world through the strategic use of data. The DSW program also taught him how to incorporate his technical skills to achieve better outcomes for people and communities, as well as the use of financial models to forecast annual budgets for research and support services. 

Now, working under the umbrella of the DOJ, it is imperative that Kluckow and his fellow statisticians leave personal feelings and advocacy out of the collection and analysis of data. His training in the DSW program prepared him for this, always emphasizing the importance of ensuring that information presented was unbiased so that it could be used by others with a clear social mission for good. 

“In the work that I'm doing now, where we're collecting this information, we need to be as rigorous and objective as we possibly can,” Kluckow said. “Understanding that it can then take wings and fly, and be used for all kinds of important and impactful work beyond what we ever expected.”